Sci-Ed: Guest Post Policy

One of our favourite things to do here at PLOS Blogs Sci-Ed is to get guest posts from other science communicators. They provide us with perspectives and views we otherwise wouldn’t be able to cover, and they have been very well received by our audience. Given this we have decided to open the process.

As we recently did over on Public Health Perspectives, in the interests of transparency, we have developed a series of guidelines for anyone interested in posting with us, as well as an outline of how we approach guest posts. If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at the email below.

We have three basic guidelines for those interested:

No self-promotion. While we appreciate that people will post about issues they are passionate about, we will not accept posts promoting your business, fundraising, or publicizing an event you’re organizing. However, if you have done an event or published recently and want to discuss or reflect on it, that is okay.

All posts must have scientific backing. Commentaries and opinion pieces can be considered, however, they have to be backed up with evidence. Sensationalist language and fear-mongering are unacceptable. The exception is for posts about novel teaching methods that you have used and have been successful.

Posts must be written for a generalist audience. We have a diverse reader base, and so we will be looking specifically for pieces that explain ideas and concepts clearly to non-specialists in the field.

What we suggest is that anyone interested in posting with us send us an email with a 1-2 paragraph outline of your piece. We will provide feedback, and let you know if there are any red flags that come up. Assuming everything is fine, we’ll then send it back to you to write up into a 600-1000 word blog post. We’ll provide input on the final document, and if we still think it’s a good fit, we’ll schedule it for publication. If not, the piece is yours, so you’re welcome to submit it anywhere else that accepts guest posts.